Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmed Davutoglu arrived in the autonomous Kurdish region of Iraq Friday, as part of efforts to end a conflict with Kurdish rebels based across Turkey's southern border.
Davutoglu's visit to Arbil, the first by a Turkish minister to the region, will include talks with Kurdish president Massud Barzani, and follows a short trip to Iraq's southern port of Basra, where he opened a new Turkish consulate.
The visit is also a sign of improving ties between Iraq and Turkey, and follows a trip to Baghdad by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan earlier in the month.
Davutoglu, Trade Minister Zafer Caglayan and a delegation of around 70 officials and businessmen were received at the airport by Kurdish prime minister Barham Saleh and Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari, a Kurd, an AFP journalist said.
They didn't make any statements or speak to the press.
Turkey has been involved in a 25-year-long bloody conflict with the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, which has rear bases in Iraq, that has claimed around 45,000 lives.